Denial-of-service attacks are a non-stop occurrence these days. Internet peering, connecting to the core of the Internet, has emerged as an effective and automatic technique to reduce the impact of these and other types of infrastructure attacks.
Using real-world case studies, this free webinar introduces Internet peering, in both the traditional and remote peering forms, and how they are emerging as tools to reduce a network operator’s vulnerability to attacks. Learn from William B. Norton who has presented four popular USTelecom webinars on Internet peering, and is the author of "The 2013 Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet.”
The Internet peering ecosystem is going through a historic and rapid paradigm shift. The largest ISPs and content providers have always interconnected their networks at the core of the Internet using a technique called "Internet Peering," the free and reciprocal exchange of access to each other's customers. In this way, networks of scale can exchange a large enough amount of traffic for free with one another to offset the cost of deployment (equipment, colocation, and transport to the colocation center). This justification is the basis for the business case for peering.
A recent trend -- called "remote peering" -- has emerged as a way for smaller networks to also get these peering benefits but without the cost of additional equipment, transport, or colocation. The remote peering model is where a remote peering provider delivers transport to the customer router with Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) extension(s) from the largest exchange points in the world. In this way, the customer gets all of the benefits of peering without the large initial capital and operational costs.
Peering and remote peering assist in mitigating Internet infrastructure attacks because there are fewer vulnerable points between content provider and consumer where they can be captured, diverted, or attacked.
Peering in both forms also segregates peered traffic from the commodity Internet. As a result, denial-of-service attacks in one part of the commodity Internet do not affect traffic exchanged in these direct peering relationships. If attacks are directed at either peer, both have direct access to each other’s technical staff including escalation details, which accelerates the troubleshooting process.
William B. Norton, Chief Strategy Officer, International Internet Exchange (IIX), Executive Director, DrPeering International and author of “The Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet”